Common ENGLISH VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS from French cooking

Do you prefer your apple pie plain or a la mode? If you didn’t know that the second option includes ice cream, then this lesson is for you. French cooking vocabulary has become widely used in everyday English. Some of these words and expressions are even used in situations that have nothing to do with food. Some examples include “a la carte”, “piquant”, “du jour”, “savor”, and more. I’ll teach you these and many others in this vocabulary & common expression lesson all about the culinary delight that is French food.

Test your vocabulary skills with the quiz! https://www.engvid.com/common-english-vocabulary-expressions-french-cooking/

NEXT, watch some more of my vocabulary lessons!
1. Vocabulary – Your body and organs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNk73qAY01I

2. Learn English words from foreign languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEGlGMLG1V4

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, I want to look at ten words and expressions from the French culinary world. Okay? These are French culinary words; means they're talking about cooking, and eating, etc. But the reason that I chose these ten is because they are very commonly used in everyday English, and not only to talk about food; they have very different contexts... excuse me. Very different contexts as well.

So, we're going to look at "à la carte". Oh, and by the way, for the French speakers watching this video, if I butcher the language, I apologize in advance. Okay? "À la carte", "piquant", "prix fixe", "savour/savor". Now, we have with the "u" and without the "u", so British Canadian spelling, American spelling. "Menu", which a lot of you already know. "Du jour", "à la mode", "pièce de résistance", "café", and "cuisine". Okay? Now, we're going to go one by one, and I'll show you in what other contexts they can be used.

Now, "à la carte" basically means according to the menu, but what it does is it allows you to order things individually as opposed to a set or a package. Okay? So, if you go to a restaurant, they have a meal plan, like a set meal; all these things are included. For example, you have appetizer, main course, dessert. You can also order other items on the menu individually and pay for them separately. So, whatever is in the menu... In the set, in the dinner set, for example, comes with it. If you want to add anything, you order it separately and pay for it on top of the meal set. But we also use this to talk about any package deal. Okay? So, for example, you go buy a smartphone, a mobile phone and the company offers you a full package with all the features that are available for this phone. Now, you don't need all... For example, if you don't need all these features, you can buy a basic plan and then choose your... The features you want à la carte. Okay? So, we don't only use it for food; we use it for any situation where you can pick individual features to... And pay for each one separately. Okay?

"Piquant". "Piquant" means spicy, but not spicy like burn your head off; spicy in a good way, like, just enough of a sting on the tongue to make it enjoyable. Okay? So that's when we're talking about food. We can also use "piquant" to talk about a person. You could say: "The woman is dressed in a piquant way." Or somebody speaks with a little bit of a piquant attitude. Basically, he means with a little bit of attitude; a little bit risky, a little bit racy, but in a way that has a good effect. It's a bit charming, you could even say. It's piquant; it's not... It's not bland, it's not boring. It has a little bit of flavour, even though you're talking about a person or something a person says or does, etc.

"Prix fixe", so again, let's go back to the restaurant. You go to a restaurant and they have a prix fixe - means they have a set price. It means fixed price and you pay this much... You pay $50 and these are all the things you get. Okay? You don't... You can't add anything; there's no à la carte menu. There's one set, one price - that's what you pay. Again, going back to the mobile phone, you can buy a package and it's a fixed price; you can't make any changes to it, no substitutions, no add-ons, no extra features, etc. Or you can just buy the à la carte items as you need them. Okay?

"Savour". Now, "savour" basically means to really feel or really enjoy the flavour of something. Okay? And when you talk about "savour" as a noun, it has that special flavour that makes a dish really good. And many of you might know "savoury". Savoury or sweet. You can have, like, a savoury crepe or a sweet crepe. "Savoury" means more of the salty flavour. But when we savour something... We can savour anything. You can savour the sunset, you can savour a book, you can savour a good wine or food, and you can savour something. It means you take the time to really, really enjoy it, and appreciate everything that it has to offer. Okay? […]